Christmas at the Institute
by Shadowhunter719
Summary: Setting: The Christmas after the events in the City of Heavenly Fire book. Simon and Clary have convinced everyone to celebrate Christmas and get presents for one another. Read to see how well they did with their present picking. Sorry for the abrupt ending, though.


Clary and Simon had just gotten back from shopping. As they entered the library, where the party was being held, they saw everyone gathered around the fireplace for it was really cold. Also, there were Christmas decorations, starting with a tree in the corner by the fireplace, and tinsel and lights on the fireplace mantel which she and Simon had mainly put up, but the others helped a little bit, especially for the taller stuff, she hated to admit.

Jace looked up as Clary and Simon walked in. He looked awfully handsome with the fire light playing on his face and she just wanted to go over to him and kiss him. Alec and Magnus had stopped talking when they walked in and were now just looking at Simon and Clary. Simon walked over to Isabelle and placed a santa hat on her long, shiny black hair. She laughed and turned to kiss Simon.

Magnus stood up and said loudly "Let's get this party started!"

Clary and Simon sat down on the couch by the fireplace and took out their already wrapped presents. Clary looked around and saw everyone else was holding presents, since this was their first Christmas, the group decided to just get a present for just one person each. She had obviously choosen Jace, Simon and Isabelle got presents for each other, and Alec and Magnus were holding each other's presents. Her mom and Luke were on their honeymoon to Idris.

Magnus sat back down as Alec asked "So what do we do now?"

Simon responded with "We give each other the presents and open them. Usually there are Christmas carols in there somewhere, but for the sake of the fact that none of you have done this before we will just skip that part."

"Are you saying I can't sing?" Jace inquired.

"No." said Simon. "I was just thinking that was not something you guys wanted to do. Plus, you guys don't know any of the songs."

"Simon is right." Clary said. She was slightly amused thinking of the others singing along to Christmas carols. It just wasn't something that Shadowhunters did.

Just then, Jace burst out in song. He was dramatically singing "Aaaahhhhh!" in an opera voice. Clary couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't a bad singer, it was just something she hadn't expected to come from him.

"Come on, let's open presents." Isabelle said.

"Here you go." said Simon as he handed Isabelle a small, rectangular package.

"Wait!" Alec said as Simon took back the package. "Jace and Clary should open up their presents first. Afterall, you guys killed Sebastian and saved the world." Clary winced. She didn't like to be reminded of that whole dreadful ideal.

"Clary was the one to kill him and you guys helped, too." explained Jace. But he took the present that Clary had just handed him.

"For you." she said.

It was a rectangular box wrapped with white wrapping paper with an imprint of Christmas trees on it. Jace dug into it and it was all Clary could do to keep the smile off her face. Jace got it opened and immediately pinched the edge of the item in the box and held it up, showing to everyone in the room. It was a set of blue pajamas with yellow ducks all over them.

"What is this?" Jace inquired, quite disgusted. He stood up, walked over to the fireplace where he dropped the pajamas. They immediately caught on fire and started to burn.

"What are you doing!" Magnus exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" wondered Jace, confused.

"Why would you waste such a perfectly good pair of pajamas! If I would have known you did not want them, I would have worn them. All they need is a little bit of glitter."

Jace stared at him, incredulous. "Of course I don't want them! They have those monstrous beasts printed all over them! Do you want me to have nightmares when I sleep?"

"Of course not. I just didn't realize you were going to end those cute little duckies' lives that way!" Magnus answered.

"Cute!" Jace exclaimed. "How are they cute?"

"I think they're cute." Alec mumbled quietly.

"See!" Magnus burst out.

"Guys!" Isabelle said loudly, trying to get everyone's attention. It worked, Magnus and Jace stopped talking and everyone turned their heads to listen to what she had to say. "Let Clary open her present so we can get a chance to open ours."

"Wait!" Clary said. "There's something else in there!" Indeed there was. Jace reached in and pulled out a dagger.

"It's beautiful Clary! Look! It even has our initials carved in it! I'll make sure it's put to good use." Jace seemed delighted with his gift and Clary was glad she knew him well enough to get him something he would like. She was so lucky to have him and she couldn't wait to see what he got her.

"I'm sure you will. Where's my present?" She looked at Jace but he didn't seem to have it.

"Look up." was all he said, with a smirk on his face.

She did. What she saw maddened her some but she knew he was just playing around. At the top of the tree was Clary's present, sitting smugly in between the branches.

"Hmm, I wonder how it got up there?" she said sarcastically.

"Maybe it sprouted wings and flew up there." Jace added, unhelpfully.

"No matter." stated Clary as she stood up and walked behind the couch. She got a running start toward the couch and used it as a hoist as she hoisted herself up into the air and jumped onto the tree. She managed to get the package before she started sliding down the tall and prickly tree, right into Jace's arms.

"Very impressive." Jace exclaimed, beaming. "You must have been taught well."

"Well, I had a good teacher." she said, smiling. They moved their heads together for a kiss. It was sweet and they both broke off reluctantly.

"Teenagers." mumbled Magnus.

Clary broke away from the refreshing kiss to open her present. She opened the box and inside she found a bunch of art supplies. There was all sorts of stuff in there, a new notepad, coloring pencils, watercolors, paintbrushes.

"Thank you." she said to Jace, and she meant it.

"I just thought you should draw more. You have a talent for art and you should put those beautiful hands to work doing something other than slapping people in the face."

"That was a long time ago! And plus, some people deserve to get slapped in the face. Maybe not you, although sometimes it's tempting."

"I guess you're right, some people do deserve to get slapped in the face. Maybe a punch for good measure." he said with a smile.

"Well, anyway, thanks for the supplies. I'll make sure to use them, now that we're not chasing after Sebastian all the time." it still hurt Clary to say her brother's name but she needed to get over that so she has been saying it more often.

"Great! Now it's our turn." exclaimed Simon. "Here you go, my love." said Simon sweetly as he handed Isabelle the small rectangular package, again.

Isabelle opened it up with a fierce rip and exclaimed at what was inside. She held it up for everyone to see. It was a lipstick holder, but it wasn't just any lipstick holder, Clary saw, as Isabelle twisted the end opposite where the lipstick comes out and a knife popped up. She threw it at the wall and it dove into the wood a centimeter away from the fireplace. Isabelle calmly got up and strode over to the knife, took it out, and twisted up the other end and applied the bright red lipstick to her lips.

"My favorite color, Simon. How did you know?" Isabelle inquired.

"I just saw it and it made me think of you." he said. "It even has a tazer on the side!" exclaimed Simon.

"Oh, I was wondering what the button was for!" Isabelle said as she gave Simon a present. He took it and started unwrapping it. It was quite a large box and when he got done, he stopped and stared.

"Oh, Isabelle!" he exclaimed. "You shouldn't have!" It was a box full of action figures from his favorite comic books.

"Thank you!" he said, a wide grin spreading across his face.

"Our turn!" exclaimed Magnus as he handed something to Alec. It was quite a large package and as Alec started to unwrap it faster and faster until, finally, Clary could see a giant gleaming bow to replace the one he had lost. With it was a quiver of arrows.

Alec was beaming as he went to Magnus and kissed him, not without passion. Jace mumbled something about Magnus's earlier comment on teenagers.

"Thank you," Alec said. "so much."

"It was no problem." said Magnus. "But you're welcome anyway. Where's my present?" he asked.

"Right here." said Alec as he handed Magnus a small package. Magnus opened it up and burst out laughing. In it, Clary could see a belly button ring.

"That's not all." said Alec. Indeed, Magnus pulled out a bottle of glitter and a bottle of hair gel.

"Where'd you get this, Alec?" Magnus inquired.

"$3.99 at Ricky's." Alec confirmed.

They ended the night with food and drink and finally everyone went to bed. That was fun, Clary thought. We should do this next year.


End file.
